


Desperate Times

by decadent_mousse



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 02:01:11
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3792388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/decadent_mousse/pseuds/decadent_mousse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Newt finds Hermann in a terrible state.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Desperate Times

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a meme! [shazzofdoom](http://shazzaofdoom.tumblr.com/) prompted: ""I’m going to need you to put on some underwear before you say anything else." I churned this thing out on the fly and didn't run it by my beta, so if there's any mistakes, let me know!

Newt woke up in bed alone at three am, which was pretty rare.  The waking up at three am part, not so much, the alone part – pretty rare, and pretty weird, because Hermann wasn’t usually the type to get up in the middle of the night.  His side of the bed was still warm, which meant he couldn’t have been gone for all that long.

He fumbled for his glasses in the dark and dragged himself out of bed.  It didn’t take him long to find where Hermann went.  The lights were on in his workspace, and he was scribbling away furiously on his chalkboard like the fate of the world depended on it.  

“Hermann?  What are you doing?”

“Working,” he said, without turning around, as if the answer was obvious.

“O-okay.  Why?  It’s three in the–”

“According to my calculations, the kaiju attacks are going to become more frequent over time.”

“Hermann, that’s great, but–”

“Great?  Great?!  Newton, it’s disastrous.”  Hermann slammed down his piece of chalk and spun around angrily.  “I don’t think you understand the gravity of the situation.”

“Dude, I–”

“If the numbers are right – and they always are – then in a matter of months we’ll be facing _extinction_ –”

“Hermann!” Newt exclaimed sharply, startling him briefly into silence.  “Look, I get that what you’re saying is important, but I’m going to need you to put on some underwear before you say anything else.”

Hermann squinted at him.  “Underwear?” he hissed, breathing so hard, the tissue crammed up his nose was waving around wildly.  “How can you be worried about _underwear_ at a time like this?!”

Newt felt like he deserved credit for not laughing, because it was really, really hard not to.  Hermann was a mess.  He’d remembered his shirt, his sweater, his socks, his shoes, but his pants and underwear were missing in action.  Also, between his head cold and the tissue in his nose, he kind of sounded like an angry goose.

“How much of that cold medicine did you _take_?”

“As much as was necessary to be able to continue on.  My work is too important for me to waste time lying in bed.”

He rubbed his face and yawned.  “Uh huh.”

“Newton, I don’t think you’re taking this seriously.  This is not a _game_.  This is a matter of life and death.  If we don’t find a way to close the Breach before then–”

Newt walked up to him and started to gentle nudge him in the direction of their bedroom.  “Yeah, yeah, I know.  End of the world, giant monsters everywhere, we all die.”

“How can you be so cavalier about this?” Hermann accused, giving him such a heartbreaking look that Newt actually felt kind of bad for making fun of him.

“Hey, hey, come on, man,” he said softly, rubbing Hermann’s back.  “I’m sorry, okay?  You’re right.  I should be taking this way more seriously.”

Hermann blinked at him like he’d sprouted a second head.  “Did I just hear you correctly?  Did you just tell me I was _right_?”  He frowned, expression grim.  “Perhaps my fever’s causing me to hallucinate.”

Newt couldn’t tell whether Hermann was joking or if he was actually being serious, but either way he laughed.  Hermann grumbled as he ushered him into the bedroom, but he didn’t protest when Newt sat him down on the bed and started helping him out of his shoes.

“I need to get back to work.”

“Work can wait.”

“Newton–”

“It can _wait_.”

The other man huffed indignantly.  “This is _important_.”

“You getting rest and getting _better_ is important.  Everything else can wait, okay?”

Newt didn’t bother with the rest of Hermann’s clothes.  He kind of doubted Hermann was in the mood to let himself be stripped, and he definitely wasn’t in any condition to do it himself.  He guided him into bed and settled under the covers beside him.  

Hermann sighed wearily and buried his face in Newt’s shoulder.  

“It’s gonna be okay.”

All he got was a despairing grumble in response, so he kissed his forehead and gave him an affectionate cheek rub.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking your temperature.”

“That’s hardly an effective means of determining–”

“Shh.”

He was pretty sure Hermann _did_ have a fever, which had probably contributed to his pantsless math adventure, but it wasn’t too bad.  Definitely not sizzling or anything, and definitely not as bad as the one he’d had a couple days ago.  Though at least that one hadn’t involved Newt chasing him down and wrangling him back to bed – mostly because he’d been too busy throwing up to get very far that day.

“I think you’re gonna live.”

“It won’t matter when the kaiju come and wipe us all out.”

Wow, he was _really_ bummed out about this.  He’d only ever seen Hermann this upset a handful of times.  Usually he was rock solid.  He got emotional about stuff, sure, but he was always kind of reserved about expressing himself.  He almost sounded like he wanted to cry, and that was just not okay.

“Hey, you’ll figure something out.”

“Not if I’m languishing in bed, I won’t.”

The guy was so out of it from cold meds and fever that he couldn’t remember _pants_ , but he could whip out the word “languishing.”  Unbelievable.

“Your equations will still be there in the morning, dude.”

Hermann huffed, but he didn’t say anything else.  It was pretty rare for Hermann to be so sick and tired that he couldn’t keep arguing.  Newt gently plucked the tissue out of his nose, which earned him a glare.  He rubbed Hermann’s shoulders and held him close, and eventually Hermann’s breathing leveled out and he seemed to finally start to relax.  

“Uh.  Would now be a bad time to remind you that we closed the Breach, like, _two months_ ago?”


End file.
